BY KENDYL HOLLINGSWORTH
KENDYLH@OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM

AUBURN —

East Alabama Medical Center (EAMC) and True Deliverance Holiness Church are teaming up to bring back the Changing Hearts and Destiny and True Deliverance Health and Resource Fair and Fall Festival. The event is scheduled to be held at the church from 9 a.m. to noon on Oct. 15. The event is free and open to the public.

“Our last one was 2019 because of COVID,” said event chair Sutricia Johnson, who is partnering with Nolan Torbert, pastor of True Deliverance Holiness Church, to organize the festival. “… A lot of our parishioners, of course, take advantage of [the event], but I would like to see more community participation because that’s really what it is.

“We try to definitely have some resources out there that can assist the community … we want it to be family friendly, so I say we have something from ages 3 to 103.”

In addition to free food, games and door prizes, nearly 40 agencies will be on site to provide information and services at this year’s event. Services are also free of charge.

Johnson said some of the highlights include free COVID-19 and flu vaccines, PSA blood tests for prostate cancer and information on breast cancer and overall breast health.

Something new this year is domestic violence information, she added.

“We’ve seen an uptick in that in my line of work,” Johnson said. “I work in the Social Services Department at the hospital, and we’ve seen an uptick of domestic violence, so I would think that having them there and in an open setting to share that information … is going to be very good for the community, so I definitely want people to come out and gather that information.”

The Auburn University Interprofessional Education Department will return to provide comprehensive health screenings such as blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol, but it will also offer hearing screenings for the first time.

Representatives from the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind will also be on site to provide information, Johnson added.

Other services and information will be available related to autism, diabetes and nutrition, hospice care, child abuse and neglect, mental health care, therapy dogs, aging and disability programs, parent and family resources, voter registration and more.

“We’re just working together to provide this information free of charge to our community at large,” Johnson said.

Attendees will also be able to donate blood to the hospital’s blood bank, which Johnson said is always a need.

True Deliverance Holiness Church is located at 936 N. Donahue Drive in Auburn. For more information, call 334-502-4700.